Academics who stepped up online and kept classes running during the pandemic are heroes.
So are the “change-makers” and “capacity builders” – the learning designers who created and communicated the resources to do the job. Sharon Altena (QUT) and colleagues asked 150 of them about their work identities and aspirations.
They found:
- 60 % of the profession are women, with study participants mainly mid-career, in a 36-55 age range. 94 % are university qualified and 87 % have PG qualifications, including 18 % with doctorates.
- nearly 70 % have worked in HE for less than a decade; 20 % joining in/post pandemic
- 80 % have taught in HE and nearly half in VET, corporate roles and secondary schools. “This would indicate that most learning designers have a broad range of practical teaching experience to draw upon when offering pedagogical advice to academic staff.”
- there is a 23 % increase in continuing employment, on pre-Covid. “This might be due to the demonstrated value of learning designers during the pandemic, who were instrumental in elevating the quality of learning and teaching that had previously been acceptable.
The good news: “recognition that learning and teaching is no longer the domain of the lone academic, but requires specialist learning design support if it is to meet the standards expected by students in the digital age.
The not-so great: “learning designers in this study were clear and consistent in their messaging that a lack of career progression is one of the reasons that they will leave the university sector.”
Fixing it: “It is critical that managers of learning design teams and universities address the artificial barriers that have been put in place that restrict the development and progression of learning designers.” But that will take significant change. “The HEW classification system that covers 54 % of the Australian university workforce may no longer be appropriate to cope with increasing complexities of roles that traverse the ‘third space’.”
